Insurance companies and/or governments require certain buildings, such as hospitals, schools, businesses, and the like, to comply with a variety of standards. These standards may be in the form of industry standards, local codes, federal regulations, state regulations, local regulations, and/or the like, and may regulate, for example, protection against the hazards of fire, smoke, asbestos, and/or the like. In order to assure compliance with applicable standards, inspectors periodically conduct inspections of the buildings covered by such standards. During such inspections, it is incumbent upon building administrators to demonstrate compliance with these standards.
Demonstrating such compliance is often tedious and expensive. For example, pipes running through walls of a building must be sealed with a material acting as a firestop in order to comply with firestop standards. However, these firestops may be between walls, in elevator shafts, and in other places that are often inaccessible or not easily accessible to inspectors. Therefore, it may be necessary to destroy portions of inspected buildings in order to demonstrate compliance with applicable standards.
The present invention permits the administrator of a building to demonstrate compliance to an inspector without destructive testing.